Allegations About Trident Submarine Program Matters

Gao ID: 128860 January 14, 1986

GAO discussed its review of allegations concerning mismanagement and questionable practices in the Trident submarine construction program, specifically: (1) contract payments involving work progress and long leadtime materials; and (2) records destruction. GAO noted that the Navy had urged the contractor to cease practices that would cause early payment of work progress, including: (1) retroactive changes to budget and schedule; (2) overvaluation of the budget allocation for work performed early in the construction cycle; and (3) an overstated labor hour budget for early contract work which resulted in greater reported progress. GAO found, however, that: (1) the practices continued and the contractor claimed 12.6 million hours during a 2-week period in which it actually expended 1.8 million hours; (2) if the Navy had not suspended payments, the budget revision would have resulted in increased progress payments; (3) the Navy continued its practice of deleting payment limitations contained in the contract payment clauses; and (4) excessive authorized funding for advance procurement of long leadtime materials caused significant cost increases. GAO also discussed general records disposal at the Trident project office and found that: (1) the contractor disposed of the records because of space and organizational needs; (2) it could not determine whether retention standards were observed; and (3) there was no evidence that project officials were aware of ongoing investigations of the Trident program during the disposal activity period.



The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.